Starting today – January 27th – until the day of the big game – February 5th – we will have a special sale going on for anyone who brings in cans of soup for the Saint Louise House Food Pantry. 

If you bring in 3 cans of soup you will save 15% on all yarn – if you bring in 5 cans of soup you will save 20% on all yarn!  Simple as that!

“Six Months to Mastery” Classes now forming!

In February we are starting a new course titled “Six Months to Mastery” for both knitters and crocheters.  Each class will be on Saturday afternoon from 4 to 6 pm and they will be alternating each week between knitting and crocheting -

The first knitting class will be Feb. 11th – “Cast On – Cast Off” and will cover many of the different ways you can cast on and cast off and the uses for each.

The first crochet class will be Feb. 18th – “Textured Stitches” and will be about all the different textures you can make with crochet – like bobbles.

You can attend the entire six months of classes for a special price of $200, or you can buy a block of two classes for $50 – or you can come to one class for $30.

We will have a sign up book for each course in the shop and in the next few days I will have the complete list of classes here on the class information page along with examples of each class and more detailed info on each class.

2012 is going to be a great year!  I have all kinds of ideas for the store: lots of new classes, lots of new things we’re going to carry.  As always, I am open to suggestions and I’m always looking for new teachers, new classes and new ideas!  We’re going to expand our line of felting supplies so if you know anyone out there who’s good at needle felting and would like to teach – send them to me!

I am also in the process of expanding our crochet department – I recently got in some size 8 thread and that’s another area where I need some more suggestions! Colors? Projects?

I also recently joined a new group on Ravelry called “Grannyaday” – It’s all about Granny Squares!
It’s a very laid back group – you can set your own rules; you can make a new granny square every day, or you can start a big granny square blanket and add to it each day – it’s all up to you!

You can read all about it here: Hooked! A Crochet Addict’s Blog,

You can Join the Group on Ravelry and if you’re on Twitter you can post pictures and use the hashtag:#grannyaday!!

Thursday Night – December 22nd

Meet our famous Amigurumi Queen – Allison Hoffman!

Martha and Allison

Allison has just appeared on The Martha Stewart Show to present Martha with her Mini-Martha doll and you can read about all of the famous people she has met and made  on her blog.

Allison will be teaching some classes here at The Knitting Nest in January – so come and meet her – see her awesome toys and sign up for an Amigurumi class – it’s fun and quick and you make make up your own toys!!

yum.

Oh, by the way – we’ll be having a smore’s party that night as well!!

Now that Thanksgiving is over and it’s finally beginning to feel like fall it’s time to get knitting on those gifts!  We have lots of gift ideas and kits set up in the store and a brand new batch of handmade project bags.

Cowls seem to be THE thing right now and we have a lot of examples and patterns floating around the shop – knitted AND crocheted of course!

I have also started a new page on the blog called “Special Deals” where I will be focusing on patterns and the yarn to go with it and having special little sales every couple of days up until Christmas.  I will be sending out special announcements on Twitter and Facebook so be sure you’re following us on Twitter:  @theknittingnest  and go LIKE our page on Facebook to make sure you keep up with all the daily specials!!

I will be collecting things to take to the Kid’s Christmas Store for Saint Louise House until the end of this week – if you have anything that would make a good present for a kid to give to his or her mom, please bring it in to the store and I will take them all at the end of the week. 

I need your Crockpot recipes!  If you have a really good recipe that doesn’t take too many ingredients – please pass it on to me.  I have had one customer bring me a $20 HEB gift card (Thanks Anita!) for our family to use for groceries and I’m hoping to get more.  I have also gotten gift cards from Thundercloud Subs and Amy’s Ice Creams.  I spent all of “cyber-Monday” trying to get a good deal on a 16″ Transformer bike – it didn’t happen.  If you know of anyone who works somewhere that can get me a deal – let me know.  Anyone out there with little boys who ride bikes want to make up a first aid kit with some cool transformer band-aids?  That would be an awesome donation – as well as a helmet!!   We also have stockings here in the store for them so if you see anything that would be a good stocking stuffer – please bring it in!

This weekend California designer Stephannie Tallent, of sunsetcat.com,  will be in town and we have arranged two classes at the shop – Saturday, November 12th, we will host a workshop based on her popular book “Mittens!”   There are three cuff patterns to choose from – all very different – and then you will learn the  basics of making mittens or fingerless gloves. 

It may just be the kick in the pants you need to get started on your gift knitting!  Remember, fingerless mittens make a great gift for anyone who has a smart phone (You can’t even answer your phone without a finger!!) and anyone who has to walk a dog.  These are just beautiful – I love the twisted cables in the Manzanita pattern and already have them in my queue on Ravelry! 

We just MIGHT be having a mittens contest in January……..  

Ysolda Teague & Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Wowee – what a weekend we’ve had here at The Knitting Nest!

Ysolda’s classes brought people from as far away as Florida and Louisiana and they were both packed!  She brought three versions of 7 sweaters with her and everyone got to try one of them on.  (I had a really hard time packing one of the examples of Chickadee up on Monday morning…the little birdies really wanted to stay here in the shop!)  I’ve gotten lots of wonderful comments back from people who took both of the classes and everyone seemed to really learn a lot and everyone had a wonderful time!

It’s always an intimidating thing to host visiting knitters - you never know exactly how much they want to be entertained or if they would just rather be left alone….but Ysolda was so easy to get along with and she and Stephanie and Amanda all hit it right off – turns out they were all born within a month of each other!  Thanks to both Elizabeth Ingram and Fran Gephart for showing Ysolda a good time on Monday and Tuesday – she even scored a pair of boots on Tuesday and Tuesday evening Ysolda sent out a tweet using the word Y’all!!  We had lots of fun – even up to last night, when we had an impromptu knit night and ordered pizza (and had more beer) and discussed the socio-economic classes of Scotland at the turn of the century and the differences between knitting and crocheting worldwide.  Oh, and Dena and I got a private lesson in dirty words in Scottish. 

On Sunday, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee was scheduled to speak at Book People.  I had emailed her assistant about a month ago and had invited her to come down to the yarn shop afterwards for dinner – I had gotten a “probably, thanks!” answer but I didn’t know what that meant exactly..especially since I know the lines after she speaks can be long and out the door, and that she would be tired and I wouldn’t blame her a bit if she just wanted to go back to her hotel and chill.  Imagine my amazement when I got a phone call from Carolyn & Joanna Bettelheim saying they were bringing her down for dinner!!! (BIG BIG Thanks to you both!)

It was awesome having both Ysolda AND Stephanie here – they spent part of dinner comparing the vast difference in the Queen on Canadian coins and Scottish coins and The Yarn Harlot told us a dirty joke.  Fun was had by all and many cold Shiners were consumed. After dinner everyone sat around the tables and out popped everyone’s knitting – at one point I counted 27 needles at work at the table! 

It was an awesome sight to behold.

Thank You everyone for a wonderful October!

So much to do….so much to talk about!

Thank You to everyone who helped me prepare for the Yarn Crawl – Sue Lundell, I’m talking to YOU!!! And a big Thank You to Allison Hoffman and Ana Clerc for their help with the pattern for our kit for the Crafty Little Needle Case – I have already seen three finished needle cases back in the shop! (That’s so much fun!) Those of you who make one please remember to add it to the Ravelry page so we can all see it.

This was our most successful Yarn Crawl ever – every year we learn a little bit and get a little bit better. We set records in every category we could – most customers through every single store, most bags and passports sold, and at The Knitting Nest we had the most customers through the shop in four days – 386!! It was amazing! Thank goodness our computer made it through the weekend with a little emergency CPR on Friday night and then some minor surgery on Tuesday and then again on Friday night. (there seemed to be a computer poltergeist among the yarn shops as three of us were having problems…)

I have had a chance to read some of the comments that people put on their passports – some of them I am going to have to just take with a grain of salt…and some of them we will all have to take with a few grains of salt and a shot of tequila. Thankfully there were also some really awesome ideas and several we hope to incorporate into our plans next year. One really great idea was a bus trip that starts at one store, goes all day and then everyone spends the night at a B&B in Comfort and the next day the trip continues with the rest of the stores! We are looking into other B&B options as well to offer several trips. Another really great idea is to use the very same black and white bags we used this year and have a decorating contest. (I LOVE this idea and can just see turning the store into a big decorating party one night after the Yarn Crawl!)

I also had a Post Yarn Crawl bout of the flu this week that really put me behind getting ready for this weekend…which takes me to…This Weekend!

Ysolda Teague will be here in the morning!!!

I have no idea why she chose our shop to visit but I’m thrilled that she did. We have two classes this weekend (both full…Sorry!) a whole stack of her books and a big box of her yarn from Lorna’s Laces. (boy, that was one luscious smelling box of yarn…I don’t know what was more freshly dyed, the Ysolda colorway or a bag of yarn I ordered to make Max a sweater in a color way called Grant Park. You’ll be seeing more of that later!)

Also this weekend we will be hosting The Austin Scarf Project group – so join them or bring by any scarves you may have ready for them to take to the homeless shelter….believe it or not, it will get cold again someday!

One more thing – I just added a new project to the November calendar for the day after Thanksgiving. Dell Children’s Hospital has put out a call for 36 x 36 inch flannel blankets for the babies in their NICU. Project Linus is asking for them so we are going to have a workshop all day that Friday. The next time you see some flannel (or a set of flannel baby blankets…they sell them in sets of three at Target and Walmart) buy a few yards and wash it. Then on the day we have our workshop we will have a sewing machine set up with a hem stitch needle that makes holes around the edge. Then you can crochet around the edge and make it pretty! It only takes about 30 minutes to go all the way around one, it’s really fun and it’s something they need badly. We’ll have some examples up in the store in the next week or so.

Alright – bring on Ysolda Weekend!!!

Ysolda Teague at The Knitting Nest!

October 22 and 23!!

Famous Scottish knitter Ysolda Teague will be in the U.S. for Rhinebeck and has picked 5 shops to visit while she’s here – we’re very honored she picked our shop and hope all you knitters turn out to give her a HUGE TEXAS WELCOME!!  We will have a Welcome to Texas Basket in the shop for anyone who would like to write her a note or bring her a Texas Themed gift. 

We will be having two ”Perfect Sweater” Workshops while she is here – Saturday, October 22 and Sunday October 23.  Both workshops will be from 2-5 pm and will cost $50 plus a copy of her book.  (We will have all three in the shop) We also have lots of her special colorway ordered from Lorna’s Laces!!

Don’t miss your chance to learn from one of the most famous knitters on Ravelry – and if you’re wondering if she has a sense of humor…..search the word Bobsolda on Flickr.  Prepare to be amused!

Unfortunately, there are so many people who have lost everything.  Susan Fricks, who owns Yarnorama, is right in the middle of everything and she has lots of customers who have lost everything.  Because of my experience as an insurance agent, I know that most of these people will get money to pay for even temporary things like hotels and food – but it will take a while.  Until then…..they wait.  And all knitters and crocheters know that waiting without something to do can drive you CRAZY!!  So Susan has come up with a wonderful plan to get some yarn, needles, crochet hooks – whatever – to these people.  (We’re not holding a yarn drive – we don’t want people going through their stash and bringing us the junk at the bottom of the pile that you bought before you discovered better yarn – come on folks – if you don’t want it why would they?) 

Read this message from Susan and then take a  new look at your stash.  Then go buy a nice card and make up a little Fiber Friend Care Package and drop it off at the store.  If you would like to buy something new I will be giving 15% off for people who are making up care packages to drop off right then.

Phoenix Rising Fiber Event

Phoenix Rising Fiber Event!

We have created a special relief project to support all our fiber friends in and around the Bastrop area who have lost their belongings, including their stashes, due the fires and smoke there. So many of you have empathized with their heartbreak and have asked how you might help. Let’s help them get a start on rebuilding their stash in the best way possible!

Here’s what we are asking… look around at your stash and find an item, be it a skein of yarn, a pair of lovely needles or a hook that you truly covet… one that makes your heart sing when you see it and feel it, one that has been waiting for that most special of projects. That is the one we hope you have in your heart to contribute.

Then, write a note about what this item means to you and what you wish for the recipient and attach it. You can put your contact info on it if you like and maybe make a new fiber friend, or remain anonymous. It’s totally up to you.

Drop your gifted treasures off between now and Sunday, September 25^th at one of the following local yarn shops:  Yarnorama – Paige, Hill Country Weavers – Austin, The Knitting Nest – Austin, Gauge Knits – Austin, Yarnivore – San Antonio. Susan, at Yarnorama, will then distribute all the gifts to the fire victims.

We can’t thank you enough for all your outpouring of support and concern during this terrible tragedy, and look forward to Phoenix Rising!